NUCLEAR disasters. “Realities that are intrinsically linked to any form of nuclear energy technology… At the same time, the costs of damages from a nuclear accident, as well as costs for the final repository of nuclear waste, will not be shouldered by the private company but by the government.” To be free from this fear: “The Philippines can achieve energy sovereignty with renewable energy, such as wind and solar, which are already domestically available. We call on President Marcos Jr. and his administration to focus more on developing these renewable energy sources.” [Greenpeace Philippines campaigner Khevin Yu, “Greenpeace on PH-South Korea nuclear deal: Stop nuclear deals, focus on RE”]
And a nuclear exchange between Beijing and New Delhi, Beijing and Washington D.C., or Beijing and Moscow is terrifying given Xi Jinping’s growing confidence with a large nuclear arsenal (supposedly for a credible and reliable retaliation capability). [https://thebulletin.org/2024/10/chinas-openness-about-its-latest-nuclear-missile-test-shows-growing-confidence-vis-a-vis-the-united-states/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=ThursdayNewsletter10172024&utm_content=NuclearRisk_ChinaNuclearMissileTest_10162024]
We should be heartened by the fact that Nihon Hidankyo (grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.” Nevertheless, the Norwegian Nobel Committee acknowledges: “The nuclear powers are modernizing and upgrading their arsenals; new countries appear to be preparing to acquire nuclear weapons; and threats are being made to use nuclear weapons in ongoing warfare.” [https://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/articles/nobel-peace-prize-2024-announcement]
We should be heartened by the fact that Southeast Asia is a zone of peace, freedom, and neutrality. Plus, Southeast Asia is a weapons-free zone, but Northeast Asia is not. And although the PRC Minister for Foreign Affairs called for persistent efforts for de-escalation and underscored that the Korean Peninsula should not experience war again, Wang Yi also told the United Nations General Assembly last 28 September 2024: “Taiwan will eventually return to the embrace of the motherland…no one and no force can stop.” [https://gadebate.un.org/en/79/china] As for Taipei, President Lai Ching-te told the attendees of the ROC’s 113th Double Tenth National Day Celebration: “But we will never forget the Battle of Guningtou 75 years ago, or the August 23 Artillery Battle 66 years ago…We will never forget the Kaohsiung Incident 45 years ago, or wave after wave of democracy movements…though the Republic of China was driven out of the international community, the people of Taiwan have never exiled themselves.” [https://english.president.gov.tw/NEWS/6816]
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that 3,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia and are training at several locations, warning that those forces will be “fair game” if they go into combat in Ukraine. [https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-russia-troops-ukraine-b664f8c1164e9ef859b7a618ffa92140] In Seoul, President Yoon Suk Yeol said on the 79th Liberation Day: “As clarified in the ‘Audacious Initiative’ that I unveiled on Liberation Day two years ago, we will begin political and economic cooperation the moment North Korea takes just one step toward denuclearization.” [https://eng.president.go.kr/speeches/YhZsGrfN]
How about Tokyo’s stance? Last 28 September 2024, Japan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Yamazaki Kazuyuki delivered a statement on behalf of his Prime Minister Kishida Fumio: “I have been steadily taking nuclear disarmament initiatives under the ‘Hiroshima Action Plan’ to strengthen realistic and practical efforts to realize a world without nuclear weapons. In March this year, as the President of the Security Council, Japan chaired the Ministerial Meeting of the Security Council on ‘Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation’…Japan will also act to further advance nuclear disarmament as we head toward the 2026 NPT Review Conference.” [https://gadebate.un.org/en/79/japan]
Not to neglect Moscow’s message, too, with Russian Federation Minister for Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrovwarning “against following ‘Anglo-Saxon strategists’ into the ‘suicidal escapade’ of defeating his country using the ‘illegitimate Kyiv neo-Nazi regime’…Confrontation and hegemony will not resolve any global problem, they will hold back the objective process of the formation of a multipolar world order that will be based on the equal rights of large and small nations…respecting human identity equality between men and women.” [https://gadebate.un.org/en/79/russian-federation]
You Know What’s Scary? Last 25 October 2024, the Speakers in the First Committee of the General Assembly79th Session, 20th & 21st Meetings (AM & PM), identified malicious activity in cyberspace that promotes propaganda, espionage, and disinformation, worsening conflicts. In fact, the Irish delegate told this Disarmament and International Security Committee: “The cyber domain in particular is being instrumentalized to undermine human rights, the rule of law and democracy — it has even become a war-fighting domain in its own right.” [https://press.un.org/en/2024/gadis3749.doc.htm] This is an “Oppenheimer” moment, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: “It is possible that AI-enabled technologies, such as lethal autonomous weapon systems or ‘killer robots,’ will someday dramatically alter war. Yet the current debate for the implications of AI on war-fighting discounts critical political, operational, and normative considerations.” [https://thebulletin.org/2024/10/a-new-military-industrial-complex-how-tech-bros-are-hyping-ais-role-in-war/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=ThursdayNewsletter10102024&utm_content=DisruptiveTechnologies_TechBros_10072024]
You know what’s scary? Bureaucrats conducting business as usual while Han chauvinists infest the SEA ZOPFAN, cyberspace and local governments in Rizal’s homeland.
